All of my Techniques and Ideas

Hello y'all, I've been seriously attempting lucid dreaming since January of this year, and I've been closely examining my progress over time. Namely, I have been focused on seeing what techniques work, what don't, what helps, and etc. I'm a very science-oriented person, and experimenting is something I like doing a lot. I wanted to share my findings with y'all, as I've made amazing progress over this time while on here and especially after finding Daniel Love's channel. This will be a long post, so feel free to scroll to information pertaining to you.

Keep in mind that all of these experiments were done on me, so some of these are subjective in how well they work. The alterations to currently standing techniques only really serve to expand the number of ways you can tailor your techniques.

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GOING TO SLEEP AND THE SLEEP CYCLE

I'll start with my more general observations and techniques when it comes to the sleep cycle and the process of going to sleep. This will help shed some light on how to map out your REM periods more easily and maybe help those who struggle to fall asleep.

If you do not know or understand the sleep cycle or what REM is, I suggest watching Daniel Love's video on the topic as well as this page on this website.

Observations on the REM cycle:

I've been carefully trying to map my REM cycle so I can properly attempt WBTBs for a while now. In that time, I have learned a couple of things that were not made as clear to me from the outset (keep in mind that this is my own observation, your REM periods may not follow the same rules unless there are peer-reviewed studies that say otherwise):

-First and foremost, the sleep cycle begins AT THE MOMENT YOU FALL ASLEEP. While your body does have a circadian rhythm, its effects on your sleep cycle are minimal, as it only affects WHEN you go to sleep (at least for myself). While I'm sure this was probably made apparent in one of Daniel's videos or somewhere on this site, I feel it isn't stressed enough. That being said, your circadian rhythm definitely makes things easier, as falling asleep according to that rhythm will allow you to start faster. The reason I make this point, however, is because many, especially those that struggle to fall asleep fast, will have a hard time trying to figure out WHEN they fall asleep. This is where I introduce my techniques:

Quick Note: If you are under the age of 40 and don't have any neurological or sleep-related illnesses and don't take any sleep affecting medication, your sleep cycle likely follows or closely follows the conventional sleep cycle.

Sleep music or sleep sound timers:

Unfortunately, without using brain wave scanners, any technique to figure out your sleep cycle is going to revolve around trial and error. However, instead of guessing where your REM period is, I use sleep timers to my advantage. Essentially, as you fall asleep, you put on music or sleep sounds that last for a specific amount of time before they end for the night. Many sleep apps allow you to listen to music and sleep sounds for a specified amount of time before the app closes so you don't have to hear it throughout the night. How you make use of them to map your sleep cycle is to estimate the amount of time you fall asleep, set the sleep timer, then try to go to sleep. When you next wake up, try to recall if you heard the sound/music go silent. If you don't recall, then that generally means you fell asleep faster than your estimate. If you DO remember, then you fell asleep after the timer. Every night, as you try to fall asleep, adjust your sleep timer so you can get the perfect timing. However, this is where another important discovery I made comes into play that is vital to nailing this time down.

Tiredness Level:

How fast you fall asleep is not completely static as you probably imagine (though I certainly wish it was). We go to sleep every day with varying levels of tiredness, which depend on both what time you are going to sleep compared to the previous night, your comfort, and how much activity you had. This is why I created an entirely subjective timing method that involves associating how you feel when you are about to go to bed to a specific amount of time it takes to fall asleep. I created a series of levels to this system, where I remember what I did during the day, when I fell asleep yesterday, and how I feel at that moment in my bed, and assign a number 1 through 5. Level 1 would be me trying to go to sleep super early with little to no activity during the day. Level 5 would be after an all-nighter and/or lots of activity and exercise. This is where I ask you to experiment on yourself a bit, as the amount of time it takes for you to fall asleep based on the level is entirely going to depend on you. I highly doubt anyone is the same in this regard, so try your best to map it out. The reason I created this system is to better standardize my attempts to map my REM periods based on when I fall asleep. Below I provide my own tiredness levels based on half a year of experimentation:

Level 1 - Not tired at all, trying to fall asleep very early

-No activity:1 hr and 30 min

-Light to normal activity: 1 hr

Level 2 - Somewhat tired, trying to fall asleep somewhat early

-No activity: 1 hr

-Light to normal activity: 45 min

-Higher activity: 30 min

Level 3 - Fairly tired, to bed on time or a little later

-No activity: 45 min

-Light to normal activity: 30 min

-Higher activity: 25 min

-High activity: 20 min

Level 4 - Very tired, long day, to bed late

-No activity: 25 min

-Light to normal activity: 20 min

-Higher activity: 15 min

-High activity: 10 or 12 min

Level 5 - Literally exhausted, very long day, to bed exceedingly late

-No activity: 10 or 12 min

-Light to normal activity: 10 min

-Higher activity: 8 min

-High activity: 5 min

-Literally sleep-deprived: 1-2 min

Heat Level:

In addition to this list, heat level I count as a separate factor in how long it takes to fall asleep. At least for me, I very much struggle to fall asleep if I am all hot. Like the last list, this one is also subjective, so I suggest doing your own testing. If you live in a cold climate unlike myself (I live in southern Texas), then you probably don't have to worry about this or may have a separate list based on the cold factor. Here is my own example:

Cold: +0 min

Room Temperature: +5 min

Slightly Warm: +10min

Warm: +15min

Hot: +30-50 min

Very Hot: check your thermostat or its impossible

Burning: your house is on fire, why are you trying to sleep

As a quick aside, be sure to only attempt WBTBs after two or three days of rest. I can't stress how much it screws up the sleep cycle and makes it even harder to both remember dreams and find your REM periods.

Going to Sleep:

Now to talk about my observations on how I tend to fall asleep. This is definitely subjective, but for me, it is a consistent cycle I go through every night. I wanted to share this in case others struggle with this as well. Important to note that these stages can overlap, but occur in this order generally speaking.

1. Resting Position Search (RPS) - this stage is characterized by an initial comfort period which is then immediately followed by slight discomfort, causing a positive feedback loop of trying to find a comfortable position, finding one, getting uncomfortable again, then tossing and turning once more. For those that struggle to fall asleep, this section can cause you to stay awake far longer than normal. This was especially prevalent when I was a kid but is still a problem for me. The way to get past this stage is to find a position you tend to sleep in and stay still, no matter how much you want to toss and turn. If you distract yourself with daydreaming, this can also allow you to supersede this stage.

2. Heat Wave - regardless of ambient temperature, the body will undergo a process of preparing the body to go to sleep. This, however, has a side effect where blood is pumped to the extremities, creating a heating effect throughout the body. This sensation typically progresses from the head down. This stage usually isn't a problem for those sleeping in a cold environment but can be the worst stage to deal with in a hot one. For me, it gets especially uncomfortable when it reaches the feet. Luckily, the same techniques in stage one will allow you to progress past this one without issue, especially if you remain still. However, it is exacerbated by the heat factor as mentioned previously. It is important to remember to keep yourself covered the right amount. to allow heat to vent.

3. Daynightdreaming - this stage is marked by an initial difficulty to visualize things and pay attention, followed by increased concentration and focus. This eventually results in daydreaming. This stage usually isn't as much of a problem as the previous stages but can result in delays in deep sleep if too much effort is poured into visualization. Getting to this stage usually marks the end of both RPS and the Heat Wave. Once at this stage, instead of focusing on visualization, it is now best to wind down and let go. Simply stop trying to visualize. Meditation at this stage also helps.

4. Drift - at this point, consciousness is being slowly lost, and staying still and keeping the eyes closed is no longer an issue. This is the last moment of consciousness before drifting into a deep sleep.

To ensure that your REM timings are accurate, you should try your best to get past these stages as quickly as your body will permit, assuming your body follows this same pattern. If it doesn't I highly suggest you try to figure it out yourself, as figuring out where difficulties lie may improve your performance.

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LUCID DREAMING TECHNIQUE ALTERATIONS

Now I will discuss the helpful variants of currently standing techniques that I feel have helped me in a variety of ways. I will start with techniques associated DILDs or increased awareness. I use or have used all of these techniques and, although not all of them have helped me, I feel that many would likely help others.

DILD Techniques and Increased Awareness:

Many techniques that involve increasing your chances for DILDs revolve around reality checks, which makes perfect sense as they are paramount to increasing your awareness throughout the day. However, many people across the internet spread relatively ineffective techniques such as the finger counting tech or the finger-through-the-hand tech that are not as reliable. In addition to that, many people struggle with dream signs as well. Some people, such as very busy people, struggle when all they do is stare at a screen all day and type or don't quite know or regularly see their dream signs. Here are some helpful alterations to reality checks and methods to increase awareness throughout the day. Mind you, I am not suggesting all-day awareness is possible, but I am saying that you should strive to be aware as much as possible.

Internal Involuntary Actions

Important note that I am not 100% certain others will benefit from this, but it has worked for me 100% of the time when I do it. One thing I noticed that my dream body fails to simulate is involuntary actions that occur internally in my body as a result of voluntary actions. Good examples of this include the knee jerk that occurs when you hit above your knee cap (don't actually do this too hard) or whenever you swallow and the rest of the throat muscles do the work. You feel them, and the remainder of the action is an involuntary chain reaction. For some reason, the dream body doesn't really do a good job of simulating these actions. My guess is that involuntary actions by your body aren't something your dream body has to worry about, so it doesn't bother.

Nose Pinch + Ear Popping

My own personal reality check beyond the ones I already do (where am I, is this location consistent, are the numbers on my clock consistent, etc.) is an extension of the nose pinch test. When you try to breathe through your pinched nose, try to look out for the feeling of your ears popping. This occurs because the air pressure in your nose is connected to your ear canals behind your eardrums, which get pressurized when you force air into your nasal passages while you have closed your nostrils. This involuntary internal action doesn't seem to happen in dreams on top of the closing of your nose. Not only will you likely breathe through your pinched nose, but you won't feel your ears pressurize either. The only reason I include this alteration is that I have had the nose pinch test fail in a dream two times before, where my dream self decided to do a reality check, but I actually was unable to breathe through my pinched nose as I would in real life, so I didn't become lucid despite my concerted effort in the dream. The ear-popping, however, has never failed me.

Swallowing

Pretty simple really. You may perform the initial action of swallowing in the dream, but your dream body won't activate the remaining involuntary throat muscles you have in real life. I haven't done this often, but I got lucid once because of it by accident (I've eaten stuff in dreams before, but only now I realize I don't tend to swallow in those either).

Breaking the Circle+

To overcome the lack of dream signs during the day or get over long periods of nothingness, you can inject awareness by performing the break the circle technique. Honestly, this tech is pretty amazing, and I highly suggest taking a look at Daniel Love's video on it:

https://youtu.be/wrZi07EWvBE

That being said, a helpful additive is to do a reality check whenever you catch yourself not doing it. I don't really mean do a reality check every time you have to stop doing it so you can pick up a box, I mean whenever you find that you are no longer paying attention to it and are no longer doing it. At some point during the day, you will do some sort of activity that requires your hands. At some point, you will likely forget to put your hand back into the gesture. It is when you catch yourself in this moment of forgetfulness is when you should do the reality check.

To expand on this idea more, I know that some people are busy with their hands all day on the computer or other similar things. The break the circle technique doesn't have to be confined to holding your hands in an OK sign though. You can, for instance, cross your big toe over another while you are working on the computer. It is discreet enough for no one to notice while your foot is in your shoes and you can catch yourself not doing it all the same. Really, it just has to be an action that is relatively easy to perform, not taxing in the least, relatively discreet, and can't be done unconsciously.

The Three Cards

This technique was introduced a while ago during a fundraising stream. The idea, at the time, was to draw three playing cards from a shuffled deck face down. After waking up the next day, you perform a reality check then check the cards. The amount listed on the card determines how much you pay to the fundraiser. I created an alteration that would be better suited to myself (I am a broke college student). Instead of donating money, you instead associate a specific, beneficial task with the three cards. One of the cards has a task that you don't really want to do, but have been meaning to do or would be really beneficial to you. The other card can have something that is simple and beneficial, but something you don't tend to go out of your way to do. The final card can be something you want to do or some sort of reward. When you draw that card you MUST act out that action regardless of how much you don't want to do it. The idea is to force the same ******** mindset behind the original idea and inject it into something more financially feasible. Doing this will cement it as a daily ritual that you will think about because of the stakes behind it. The hope is that eventually, you will dream about it because of how concerning it is to you throughout the night, attempting to create a dream seed. If you find that it isn't really spiking your interest, you can raise the stakes, though I still encourage you to avoid financial matters. ******** is a real issue.

Restructuring the Day

It is advised by Daniel Love in a couple of videos that, while falling asleep, you should try to remember the day so that whenever you see them in your dreams, you will recall that they already happened. This technique is super helpful in its own right, but I added an extra bit that is similar in nature to MILD. When you remember your day, call out your dream signs whenever you see them in your visualization. Whenever you do so, perform a reality check in the visualization and briefly act out how you would act if it became a lucid dream. Doing that can actually cause you to look out for dream signs more often in dreams. It can make up for the times you forgot to do reality checks.

Fantasizing the Lucid Dream

This really just helps with focusing your goals for whenever you get a lucid dream, but can also get you thinking about lucid dreaming before you go to bed. The idea is to create a fake dream entry in your dream journal about a lucid dream that you want to happen. You imagine a fake scenario in which you saw your dream sign or got lucid through a WILD technique and go about what you want to do in a lucid dream.

WILD Techniques

WILDs are a complex subject to approach because of how difficult they are. I know personally just how much time I've invested in trying to establish a proper technique to getting WILDs, as they require a very large amount of precision and accuracy while also only being attemptable twice per week. That being said, I've attempted many techniques and made slight alterations that, although some are unhelpful to me, are likely helpful to someone else. I will also share my own personally invented technique that is helpful to those that struggle with falling asleep during standard WBTB. It is important to note that all of these techniques revolve around WBTB.

The Drop Technique

This tech has been the most successful technique I discovered from Daniel Love, as its simplicity and its effectiveness are practically perfect. Unlike most WILD techniques, the drop technique will allow you to get as close to the REM period as possible without losing consciousness by accident or over visualizing. The main drawback to the drop tech (annoying loved ones or damaging floors) is that holding onto any item will make it difficult to fall asleep, especially if you have to hang it off the side of your bed. This is especially infuriating if your bed is wide enough to where sleeping in the middle and hanging an object off the side requires an awkward position. This is why I created a helpful set of alterations that I think work very well to overcome these issues.

The first is an alteration involving the use of a rope. Tie the object in question to a long enough rope such that it hangs off of the side of the bed from your hand. This way you can have much more freedom when it comes to sleeping positions. How you hold this rope is largely up to you, but it has to be such that your hand will let go whenever you lose consciousness. Find the right position for you. A quick side note is that upon experimenting with the drop tech, I've had it to where I didn't ever let go of the rope, but actually got a WILD anyway for a short time. It may be possible that merely the act of holding onto it forces the right amount of consciousness as you fall asleep.

The second is one I saw on the forums, where the person in question put their hand into a long sock while they held the object. This way, whenever the object was dropped, it was caught into the sock and the tug of the sock injected forced him into a WILD. I find this one especially helpful if you want to do the drop tech without annoying those who sleep in the same house with a loud noise.

When it comes to the drop tech, it is up to you to determine how much weight you should carry. It will take some trial and error to figure out what works best for you. Additionally, I should also remind anyone who attempts this technique to only use it if you tend to fall asleep quickly.

Dreamstumbling

This was an alteration to the Dreamwalker technique that I only recently heard about through a stream. The idea is to go about a normal Dreamwalker (which I will link below), but instead of imagining the surroundings, you try to go about Dreamwalker but with your dream eyes closed. This way, you are stumbling through pure darkness, concentrating only on how it feels and following your mental map. I find this alteration helpful as not only does it make it easier for those that struggle with visual imagination, but it also takes the burden of visualization altogether. This is helpful because focusing too much on visualizing can make you more awake than you should be when attempting WBTB.

https://youtu.be/s1lQdjBfbh8

Dazzling Lights

This is one of my own techniques helpful to those who are good at visual imagination. One thing I noticed that helps in any visualization technique is to imagine something that results in an involuntary response. This is a sign that you are really good at visualizing that thing. For me, I am really good at imagining bright lights. My first reaction to seeing any bright light shined at me is to shield my eyes almost involuntarily. The feeling of this along with the involuntary action actually helps a lot in inducing WILDs. I simply imagine myself laying down on an ocean floor staring up at the rippling water. The sunlight passing through occasionally hits my eyes, to which I instinctively squint. This helps as each time the light hits my eyes, a little awareness is injected into my visualization.

Paranoia

This might sound odd to some people, but I have actually come up with a technique that forces me to be slightly paranoid, which induces lucidity. The idea is to use sound imagination to create false sounds in my room. I make the sound of someone walking on carpet, moving objects, or breathing/whispers. This causes me to become paranoid and unconsciously imagine someone is in the room behind me. To some, this sounds incredibly weird and possibly unproductive, but for me, I get over my fears fairly quickly. It requires almost no visualization, which means that the burden of imagining things is lifted while also injecting some awareness into me. It eventually causes sleep paralysis and can create some spooky auditory hallucinations, but this is the perfect moment to jump into a lucid dream for me. Most, if not all, of my WILDs seem to result in sleep paralysis, so it's no real big deal for me anyhow. I don't advise this technique unless you are the brave type.

Short WBTB

This is my own variant of a WBTB that is intended to solve the major issues with falling back to sleep. Daniel Love suggests that you get out of bed and stay awake for a while when doing WBTBs, which is the correct way to approach it. The idea is to get yourself as lucid as you can be before you fall back to sleep. The main reason, however, of why WBTBs can only be attempted twice per week is just how long it often takes to fall back to sleep. For those that don't struggle, full WBTBs can be the main thing that gets them lucid, but for those that do, it is largely unhelpful. Of course, it has been made clear multiple times that the length of a WBTB is entirely dependent on the person. The most consistent thing though with WBTBs is that they require you to get out of bed and become more aware. This variant of WBTBs does not involve you getting out of bed. Instead, during a short WBTB, the only thing you do is write down your last dream (if you remember) and fall back asleep using heavy visualization techniques or the drop technique. I'm not suggesting replacing WBTB or downplaying the importance of the full process, but this variant can allow for techniques that otherwise wouldn't be helpful during a full WBTB.

The primary draw of the drop technique is that it allows you to fall asleep without much issue and inject awareness at the right moment. However, this technique is only available to those who fall asleep really fast during full WBTBs. If you perform a short WBTB, even those who struggle to fall asleep quickly can make use of the drop technique because now they are likely going to fall asleep much faster. Based on my own experimentation, this technique consistently works for myself without compromising my sleep schedule nearly as bad as a full WBTB.

The biggest downside to the short WBTB technique, however, is that it doesn't actually grant you any awareness like a full WBTB does but instead allows you to attempt heavy visualization WILD techniques when you can fall asleep quickly. It's a trade-off tech.

One suggestion when doing a short is to make sure you make it impossible for you to simply fall back asleep without attempting anything by placing something to remind you to do your attempt on your alarm device. In other words, you have to interact with the object in question in order to turn off your alarm. Shorts have a tendency to force you back to sleep, so it is best to create reminders for your sleepy self.

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Final Words: I have to stress that I AM THE ONLY ONE I TESTED THESE TECHNIQUES ON. I have been only experimenting on myself for the past year and have told no one else about this stuff up until now. I have carefully taken notes during all of my attempts and made these observations. None of these are based on any sort of speculation or superstition but instead were carefully crafted through my own experimentation. I do hope others can attempt these so I can validate or invalidate some of my findings. I encourage everyone to give their own results on any of these and criticism wherever needed. I have to thank everyone here on the forums and Daniel Love for spreading love on this topic. I especially thank Daniel Love for approaching this topic from a very scientific lens, as it has inspired me to really approach it in the same way. I hope I can innovate in this field in any way I can.